Torque Tutorial #2 Modifying the existing 'Starter Racing Kit' to 'Hovercraft Racing Game' Tools: Softimage|XSI, Blender3D, GIMP, Terragen By: Iwan Kartiko, 29/03/06 © Interactive Systems and Virtual Reality Research Group – Macquarie University, 2006 1 Table of Contents Title...................................................................................................................Page No. Introduction 3 Section 1 - Setting up your Torque3D Game Engine. 5 Section 2 - Preparing 2D sketches. 6 Section 3 - 3D Modeling with Softimage 7 Section 4 - Texturing the Hovercraft with Gimp. 25 Section 5 - Importing and Exporting in Blender. 29 Section 6 - Torque Scripting. 40 Section 7 - Adding more checkpoints (into starter_racing kit) 42 Section 8 - Loading up a Heightmap into Terrain Editor 44 Section 9 - Loading Textures for Terrain 45 Section 10- Skyboxes 46 Troubleshooting 49 Section 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 go together. Section 7, 8, 9 and 10 are different topics and they are more like short-individual guides in creating more checkpoints, importing a heightmap, texturing terrain and setting up a skybox. © Interactive Systems and Virtual Reality Research Group – Macquarie University, 2006 2 Introduction Welcome to another Hovercraft Racing Tutorial. This second tutorial is quite similar to the first tutorial. In this second tutorial we will be using Softimage and Blender3D to create model for Torque Game Engine. This tutorial will look into modeling a simple hovercraft, adding checkpoints and creating a game world by utilising Terragen and Torque's built-in editor. This tutorial was written based on Torque Game Engine v1.4, most of the steps explained here can be done also for v1.3. I won't discuss Softimage|XSI in depth here. I'm assuming that you're already familiar with XSI user interface, Selection tools (Spacebar, T, Y, U, I, and M key) and Transformation tools (X, C and V key). For this tutorial we'll be employing these following tools; • Torque3D Game Engine • Softimage|XSI • Blender + Torque Exporter plug-ins • jEdit (programmer text editor) • Gimp (graphics manipulation program) • Terragen (free photorealistic scenery generator) Torque3D Game Engine www.garagegames.com The cheapest commercial game engine out there with TONS!!! of features (please check the web, it's too too much to list here) and an amazingly active community. There are 2 different type of licenses; Indie and Commercial. Indie cost only USD$100; targeted for hobbyist, for learning purpose and for commercial too if you're earning less than USD$250,000 annually. Check the web site for more information on Torque Game Engine. When you purchase TGE you will be given full C++ source code as well. Softimage|XSI www.softimage.com Great digital animation software and the user interface has apparent workflow and key settings that increase productivity. Softimage comes in 3 different edition; Foundation, Essential and Advanced. Foundation is the least expensive with limited yet sufficient features to get work done. Advanced is the most expensive of all and it has everything Softimage|XSI has to offer; sysflex cloth, advanced character rigging, hair/fur, behavior, advanced polygon tools, simulations, etc. Please refer to the website for more information about Softimage products. Blender + Torque Exporter plug-ins www.blender.org Blender is an open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. Available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License. You may create your model in Blender too if you're familiar with it. I've been using the program for quite sometime now and still I find the interface is annoying and confusing. You can work really fast and effectively with blender if you could memorise all the hotkeys. I will provide a brief © Interactive Systems and Virtual Reality Research Group – Macquarie University, 2006 3 introduction to Blender in this tutorial. We'll be using blender to prepare a model for Torque Game engine as there is currently no exporter for XSI. jEdit www.jedit.org This program is free as well. In order to run jEdit we must make sure that Java Runtime is installed in the computer. You may use your own editor of your choice. Gimp www.gimp.org This is another free program to manipulate pictures, similar to Adobe Photoshop with less filters. We'll use this program to create texture for 3D model. You may use Adobe Photoshop for this tutorial too if you are familiar with it. Terragen http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/ A photorealistic scene rendering engine. It allows you to create a breathtaking natural scenery with lot of options to alter the atmosphere, fog, clouds, terrain surface, water, etc. In this tutorial, we'll be using this program to create a skybox for our game. The free edition allows you to create terrain up to 513 x 513 pixels and maximum render resolution of 1280 x 960 pixels, non commercial use. If you wish to to get an output > 2000 x 2000 pixels you need to register and pay for the commercial license. If you have a copy of Bryce, Vue or MojoWorld, you may use them also to create a skybox. At the end of this tutorial I also have provided a troubleshooting section, which covers common problems that might be encountered during this tutorial. So, again, hold on to your hat, and enjoy the ride. © Interactive Systems and Virtual Reality Research Group – Macquarie University, 2006 4 Section 1 - Setting up your Torque3D Game Engine You got torque now? Great! What we are doing here is to set-up Torque3D Game Engine in your computer then copy the files that we required for this tutorial somewhere-else. The reason is when you modified the original file you might want to -at certain point- restore the original file for comparing purpose or script testing purpose. Re-installing TGE many times can be troublesome. So, leave the original files alone, copy all the required files somewhere-else and start working from the copied files. Installing Torque3D Game Engine: 1. Install TGE to your computer. 2. Get into the folder which Torque was installed, you will notice there is a 'example' folder (illustration 1). Copy the content of 'example' folder to your own working directory. Illustration 1Contents of 'example' folder 3. Now we need to modify main.cs file so that torqueDemo loads starter.racing kit when we double click it. By default, torqueDemo would launch Tutorial Base (v1.4) or starter.fps (v1.3). Open up main.cs with jEdit or with your preferred editor, change the default game entry at the beginning of the file with $defaultGame = “starter.racing”; That's it, basically you have your own working folder with an executable that will automatically load Torque's Starter Racing Kit. If we ever need to get the original files, we can always get from the original installation folder without having to reinstall Torque every time. Let's move on... © Interactive Systems and Virtual Reality Research Group – Macquarie University, 2006 5 Section 2 - Preparing 2D sketches I mentioned already mentioned this the last tutorial and I'm going to mention this again. Before plunging yourself into 3D modeling world, lets do some sketches to guide your 3D modeling. When you sketch, please make sure that the model is vertically and horizontally in proportion. The sketches for top, side and front view were darkened because we'll use these sketches within Softimage. In Softimage, when we select a line or a polygon it will be highlighted white by default, seeing white on white is really troublesome, by having darkened sketches we can see the polygons sit on the sketch more clearly. You may use your own hovercraft design for this tutorial. You can grab the techniques in this tutorial and apply them. Your top view sketch might not be perfectly symmetrical, and that's all right. The sketches would still serve it's purpose to guide us in making 3d model. © Interactive Systems and Virtual Reality Research Group – Macquarie University, 2006 6 Section 3 - 3D Modeling with Softimage Rotoscope Let's start with top viewport. On top viewport's click on Wireframe -> Rotoscopy Options... A PPG will appear, click on New -> New from file... highlight atreyu_top.jpg, LMB double-click to select file and close PPG. The rotoscoping is not enabled yet, to enable the rotoscoping click on Wireframe -> Rotoscope. Do the same for side view and front view. Use atreyu_side.jpg and atreyu_front.jpg. When you zoom in or track with rotoscope view enabled you will notice that the image does not change with size or placement with the grid and every objects in the scene. The rotoscope image is fixed in the center of the viewport. We don't want this, this would make the modeling process difficult as you'll need to pan and zoom into the viewport. Once you loaded all the rotoscopy images, now lets track the camera movement with the rotoscopy images by clicking on the magnifier-looking icon on viewport top-bar. Do this for top, side and front viewport. © Interactive Systems and Virtual Reality Research Group – Macquarie University, 2006 7 Save your scene. We've put up the images in the viewport and we're ready for the modeling part. Modeling Let start with a cylinder. Click on Primitives -> Poly mesh -> Cylinder. Use these following settings; ● Radius = 1; Height = 4 ● U subdivision = 6; V subdivision = 4 and Base subdivision = 3 ● Give the object a name, something you like © Interactive Systems and Virtual Reality Research Group – Macquarie University, 2006 8 Rotate the cylinder 90° around x-axis and scale it so that the cylinder covers the basic shape of the hovercraft. Don't worry about covering the tip of the hovercraft.